406 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



few pieces of painted paper happened to fall when 

 shuffled ? Yet it is easy to see why this or any way of 

 telling fortunes is believed in. Many persons believe 

 in the predictions of fortune-tellers for the seemingly 

 excellent reason that such predictions are repeatedly 

 fulfilled. They do not notice that (setting apart happy 

 guesses based on known facts) there would be as many 

 fulfilments if every prediction had been precisely 

 reversed. It is the same with other common supersti- 

 tions. Reverse them, and they are as trustworthy as 

 before. Let the superstition be that to every one 

 spilling salt at dinner some great piece of good luck 

 will occur before the day is over ; let seven years of 

 good fortune be promised to the person who breaks a 

 mirror ; and so on. These new superstitions would be 

 before long supported by as good evidence as those now 

 in existence ; and they would be worth as much, since 

 neither would be worth anything. 



(From the Cornhill Magazine for December 1872.) 



NOTES ON GHOSTS AND GOBLINS. 



THERE are few subjects more perplexing, on a close 

 examination, than the ideas of men about the super- 

 natural (as distinguished from the religious). Whether 

 we analyse particular superstitions and endeavour to 

 understand what is actually believed respecting them, 

 or whether, taking a wider view, we consider the origin 



